Walk With Amal - East Boston, Massachusetts

It is now a few minutes before 5am, Saturday morning, and I just finished processing my photographs from yesterday evening's event , Walk With Amal in East Boston, Massachusetts. It was a wonderful, fun evening full of smiles and joy, singing and dancing to the music of our fabulous & invaluable friends, Good Trouble Brass Band as we walked from East Boston's Central Park, through Eagle Hill , to the Urban Wilds adjacent to Eversource's Eastie Substation. The experience was so wonderful I couldn't wait to share these photographs with you all.

Little Amal, whose name means "hope" in Arabic, is the 12 foot puppet of a 10 year old Syrian refugee child.  She has become a global symbol of human rights, especially those of refugees. 

Since July 2021, Amal has travelled over 6,000 miles to 15 countries, and been welcomed by more than a million people on the street, including hundreds of artists, civil society and faith leaders, as well as by tens of millions online.

Little Amal has become an international symbol of compassion and of human rights. She carries a message of hope for displaced people everywhere, especially children who have been separated from their families. The puppet of Little Amal was designed and built by Handspring Puppet Company, who created the puppets for the international hit play War Horse, establishing them as one of the most important puppet companies in the world. Everywhere Amal goes she is greeted with events that are authentic and meaningful to the local people she meets. So far, she has visited 15 countries including Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, the UK, the United States, Poland, Ukraine, Canada and Norway.

Little Amal was joined by Extinction Rebellion Boston, Good Trouble Brass Band, GreenRoots, XR Youth Boston, Scientist Rebellion, The Puppet Free Library, Students Rebuild, Spontaneous Celebrations & many more.

Searching for a place to rest, Amal discovers a lost endangered salt marsh sparrow, also looking for a safe haven. As the sun sets, and with the community offering support and light, Amal and the sparrow will lead a procession to the Urban Wild and encounter more creatures threatened and displaced by climate change. All need refuge, so they all travel together, ending with a lantern-lit celebration of community resilience and climate justice as they all lay down to rest.

All photographs © Lita Xú Líng Kelley. Contact for personal use, editorial license or personal print purchase..

Learn more about Little Amal & her big journey at https://walkwithamal.org/

Global School Strike for Climate

Join XR Youth Boston & Boston Friday's for Future on Friday, September 15th. The global demand for this strike is "an end to fossil finance". This means divesting from new and current fossil fuel projects and making massive investments in community owned renewable energy projects, as well as making reparations for the historically marginalized people who have already had to face the brunt of climate change.Boston will be holding a rally and die-in at City Hall Plaza. All ages are encouraged to join in! RSVP here